


Share and Share Alike

by thwax



Category: Superman Returns (2006)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-30
Updated: 2006-07-30
Packaged: 2018-06-02 05:04:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6552154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thwax/pseuds/thwax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clark sits unhappily on the sidelines watching Richard and Lois' relationship grow. He can only console himself with the knowledge that his son is safe and loved by the couple. Things must change, however, when a discovery by Jimmy means that Lois regains the memories that Clark took from her, memories that tear her apart. Only Clark and Richard together can heal the woman they both love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Remembering

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone who doesn’t know, Superman Returns is set six years after Superman II where Superman became human to be with Lois, a union which they consummated, but then Clark had to get his powers back to free the Earth from General Zod and his cronies. At the end of Superman II, in the knowledge he can never really be with Lois, Clark makes her forget who he is with a kiss. The consequences of that movie are Clark’s unrequited love for Lois and Jason, their son, who thinks his father is Richard White, Lois' long-time fiancé.

Clark shuffled the papers on his desk and tried not to watch the reflection he could see in his computer screen of Richard and Lois sat together at Lois’ desk. It had been a couple of weeks since the whole Lex Luthor Kryptonite Island debacle and things had settled down into more of a routine, even for Superman: he was back into the whole saving the day formula, but he was also taking a little time each night to visit his son’s window as well. Sometimes Jason knew he was there, sometimes Clark just watched him sleeping, and he had a growing rapport with the boy. Whether Jason was aware they had a connection other than friendship was not a subject Clark ever addressed, not while his son was awake anyway, and that could be frustrating, but it was nothing compared with the joy of knowing he was a father. So life was a little complex, but there were plenty of families with complicated relationships, and Clark knew only time would sort some things out.

One of the complexities was the jealousy he could not shake whenever he saw Richard touching Lois. Clark Kent had gone from absentee back to being at least a friend with Lois once more, but it was Superman who had reasserted himself properly into her life, not Clark, and it was proving more difficult for a single man to be any more than an acquaintance to the practically-married woman and her family than it had been for the two singles in their previous friendship. 

Still, it wasn’t only Lois and Richard whom Clark was watching. Richard had picked up Jason from school, and the boy was supposed to be playing in his office, but, as usual, he was finding mischief in the newsroom. He had one of Jimmy’s digital cameras to his eye and was walking around looking through the lens and clicking the shutter at a speed that said he was going to fill up the card pretty quickly. Clark had a discrete eye on the disaster waiting to happen, and, sure enough, after another few seconds, foot contacted with unseen trash can and boy plus expensive camera went heading for the ground.

Clark didn’t move quite with the speed of Superman, but at least with the speed of a concerned parent, which was faster than most people could track. He caught Jason round the waist with one arm and reached over, capturing the camera with his other hand, and he was righting the minor catastrophe when a second concerned parent also broke land speed records. Clark let go of Jason as his mother knelt in front of him and took hold of his shoulders, and stepped backwards away from the family moment.

“Jason, you have to be more careful,” Lois scolded, but sounded more worried than angry, and Clark watched the concern on her face.

It was only when the woman turned to look up at him that he realised he was staring, and so he blinked and offered a small smile as she told him, “Thank you, Clark.”

“Yeah, thanks Mr Kent,” Jimmy provided a welcome distraction when Lois’ glance stayed a little too long, and Clark turned to the photographer just as something more than gratitude slipped into her eyes.

“You may want to put this away somewhere safe,” he suggested in the quiet voice he habitually used for Clark, pushing his glasses back up his nose as he did so.

“The Chief would have had my head if I broke this,” Jimmy nodded solemnly and headed back to his desk, cradling the camera.

“You could have hurt yourself,” Lois drew Clark’s attention back to Jason, as he hid his own parental concern, “and broken the camera. Now what do you say to Jimmy and Clark?”

The child looked sheepishly through his fringe up at Clark and then across at Jimmy and murmured, “Sorry Jimmy. Sorry Clark and thank you for catching me.”

“No harm done,” Clark replied, another smile on his lips, “but next time, you might want to take the camera away from your eye when you’re walking.”

Jason nodded, but the event was already passing, and a grin was creeping across his features.

“Alright,” Lois seemed the only one who hadn’t finished lecturing, and added, “now I want you to go back in Daddy’s office and sit quietly till Daddy and Mommy are finished, okay?”

At that, Jason made a face and there was a definite whine on the way, which Clark bit his lip to stop from intercepting, since Mom had spotted the reaction and seemed to be handling it. 

“Go on now,” she instructed, aiming the boy at Richard’s office.

Head down and with dragging feet, Jason started to obey Lois. Clark watched his child go, indulging the feeling of parenthood just a little. A hand on his arm brought him out of the momentary reverie, and he glanced quickly at the touch which had surprised him. Lois was frowning, but not too seriously, as she looked up into his face, and Clark had to stifle all the emotions that connection caused, covering with what he hoped was his usual slightly startled expression.

“Thank you,” Lois spoke earnestly, leaning in even closer and patting the arm on which she had rested her hand.

She glanced after her son one more time, the frown growing, but then instantly lightening when she looked back up at Clark and complemented, “You were faster than I could have been.”

“Just closer,” Clark countered and stepped back from the hold, playing with his glasses awkwardly as he failed to control all his emotions.

“Even so, thanks for getting there before a trip to the ER was necessary,” Richard joined in, walking over and reclaiming his fiancée by slipping his hands round her waist. 

He smiled at Clark and there was definite gratitude there, but Clark took another step back as he recognised territory being marked as well; he was pretty sure Richard knew he had feelings for Lois, and there was always a little tension between them because of it, but as long as Clark remained deferent to the status quo, there had been no words exchanged on the matter. Both acknowledged parents then, as one, looked over to where Jason had reached the office, and the unity there made Clark turn away back to his own desk.

“Well, incident over,” he tried to sound jovial and upbeat, but he could hear the falseness of it in his tone, so he picked up the papers that had been a useful distraction before and began shuffling them as he sat down.

He couldn’t help the quiet sigh that escaped his lips as newsroom life started up again and the couple walked away.

* * *

It wasn’t more than ten minutes before Jason had taken advantage of his parents going into a meeting with Perry and ventured out into the newsroom once more. It was when a pile of papers went sailing off Gaminski’s desk and the man only just stopped from swearing at his junior culprit that Clark and Jimmy shared a look.

“Hey, Jason, why don’t you come over here and have a look at the pictures you took,” Jimmy provided the solution to business as usual, and Clark gave him a grateful smile as the boy headed rapidly over to the photographer’s desk.

Ostensibly, Clark went back to typing up his latest article, but he was, in fact, mostly looking over the screen at where Jason took a seat next to the affable young Olsen.

“Wow, I took lots!” Jason announced as Jimmy pointed out images on his computer, and Clark ducked behind his own screen as that caused him to grin.

Clark tried to concentrate on his submission, but Jason was an easy distraction, and so, keeping his head down, he listened to Jimmy handling the child very well.

“...Look, here’s one of your Mom and – is that your Dad?” was followed by giggles. “I think you need some practice.”

“Uncle Perry,” Jason continued excitedly.

“And you took a picture of me, too,” Jimmy kept the momentum going.

However, then there was a pause and it was Jason who observed guiltily, “That was when I was falling down.”

“Is that Clark?” Jimmy sounded so incredulous, it put Clark on alert, and he obviously looked up and over at his colleague in time to catch a look which took him to Defcon 1.

Moving slower than Superman he may have been, but Clark knew he had been swifter than humanly possible when catching Jason, all the same, and having that on record was not something he wanted.

“Really?” he asked, a little too loudly to be casual, but he stood, shoving his hands in his pockets, and did his best to look nonchalantly interested as he sauntered over.

“Just your foot,” Jimmy told him, but his smile was nervous as he indicated to the slideshow on his screen.

There, indeed, was a large, out of focus foot clearly taken as Jason had flopped over Clark’s arm. That picture was innocuous enough, but the way Jason was staring hard at Jimmy, Clark guessed that had not been the photo that had caused the comment.

“Well, that’s one I should send home to Mom,” Clark quipped, hiding his suspicion.

He glanced down at the card reader on Jimmy’s machine: it was easily in reach, and Clark knew he could have extracted the digital media without Jimmy seeing, but his pessimism suggested that such an act might add to whatever notion the hidden picture had inspired in his friend. He wanted whatever Jimmy had decided to hide to go missing, but that would have to wait until later. Jason was looking at him almost as suspiciously as he’d looked at Jimmy a moment earlier when Clark glanced at the boy, and then Jason’s eyes flicked to the card reader: it was time to back out gracefully, before the plot thickened.

“Sorry, Jason, but I’m with Jimmy, you need some practice,” Clark teased as lightly as he could manage, and then he headed back to his desk, listening to Jimmy breathing rapidly out and Jason hissing, “Why’d you hide the other pictures?”

So there was more than one.

“Did I?” Jimmy didn’t sound very innocent. “They’re not very flattering anyway.”

Silence.

The silence did not last very long at Jimmy’s desk, because the photographer soon had Jason manipulating photos in most amusing ways if the conversation and giggling was anything to go by. Clark carried on eavesdropping, but he did manage to finish his article as well. It was as he was saving the final draft that Perry’s door opened and Richard called, “What are you doing out of my office, Young Man?”

The tone was not too severe and when Jason looked up at his dad, his face was flushed and excited and he beckoned to Richard as he called, “Come see what I’ve learnt, Dad.”

Richard strode across the room, and his face was set in a proud smile as he leant over Jason and looked at the computer. Clark ignored what he was hearing as a son told his dad about everything he could think of: jealousy was not a good emotion. Clark concentrated on closing down his word processing application and logging off his computer, deciding it was time for an early escape from the office. However, just as the computer screen went black, there was a call from his editor, “Kent, my office.”

“Yes, Sir,” Clark muttered under his breath, his spirits rapidly falling as he realised there was probably going to be no retreat.

* * *

Half an hour later, Clark was doing rewrites on an article that Perry wanted for the morning edition. Five years in space had meant his ‘pizzazz’, as Perry called it, was a little rusty, and he was finding it more difficult than he expected to get back into the flow. The dilemma of how to get the pictures away from Jimmy wasn’t helping either. Clark was stuck in the middle of a subordinate clause when he picked up the sound of junior feet heading his way.

About the only person Clark had a smile for right then was Jason, and he turned to the boy as he came to a halt beside his desk.

“Did you have fun with the pictures?” Clark asked.

Jason nodded, but he wasn’t smiling as he replied, “But Dad says Jimmy has to work now, so I have to go back to his office.”

“You have a book, don’t you?” the answer came out without Clark really thinking, and it struck him immediately as terribly parental.

Jason nodded again, but he still had no smile for the bright look Clark was giving him. Then, Clark found out why as slowly, the boy lifted his hand, uncurled his fingers and dropped a small, black square on the table.

“I thought you wanted this,” Jason surprised and worried Clark at the same time as he identified the camera’s media card. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”

Clark knew without a doubt that Jason was not only talking about the media card when he spoke about not telling, and when his son fixed him with a stare that said more than any words, Clark froze under it. The look said the child had seen right through the nerdish disguise, which had protected Clark for so long, and it was an exposing moment. Yet this was no supervillain, this was his own flesh and blood, and the shock slipped with surprising ease into relief and Clark found himself smiling more genuinely than he had in a long time.

“Thank you,” he whispered back, no hunched shoulders or light-worded pretence between him and his newest confidant.

“It’s what friends are for,” Jason finished, and then, picking up Clark’s smile, carried on his way to the office.

Clark finished his rewrites surprisingly quickly after that, and then it really was time to follow most of the rest of the newsroom and to go home. He’d just stood up to put on his jacket when he heard the screaming coming from what he judged was a few blocks away. He dropped his jacket back onto his chair and headed towards the door.

* * *

Lois watched Clark striding towards the door: for a young man, he certainly took a lot of bathroom breaks. Yet, she wasn’t really interested in her friend right then, she was more interested in finishing the article that she and Richard had been polishing for what felt like days, and then what she really wanted to do was get Jason home, fed and then into bed and finally to dive into a really hot bubble bath. Her eyes dropped to her computer screen once more and she waited for the input she was expecting from Richard, but instead she heard an exclamation from Jimmy’s desk.

“Oh gees!” the young man said rather too excitedly for one of the world’s best reporters not to notice.

“Anything wrong, Jimmy?” she asked, leaning round her monitor to check.

“No, nothing,” Jimmy sounded guilty and a little scared, and as he glanced Lois’ way, he seemed to think better of what was obviously a lie and said, “You gotta see this, Miss Lane.”

It didn’t sound ominous, but Lois still found herself on her feet and scurrying across the newsroom, quickly followed by her fiancé. When she reached Jimmy and was leaning over his chair, however, all she could see on the screen were four very blurred images that at first glance did not seem to be anything to write home about.

“What is it?” Richard asked the pertinent question.

“These are the shots from my camera when Jason was falling over,” Jimmy began excitedly, but Lois still didn’t see what all the fuss was about. 

“That’s Mr Kent,” Jimmy continued, obviously passing on a revelation that Lois just wasn’t getting.

She made a face as the young man looked up at her and then she shrugged. He sighed and then pointed at the screen, “The timestamps are in the names of the files, look, there’s less then two seconds from first to last.”

At that, it was Richard who leant in and checked what Jimmy had said, then, very rapidly he looked over his shoulder at Clark’s desk, and then to the point where Jason had fallen and then back at the screen.

“From sitting to there in less than two seconds?” the man breathed and Lois’ heart began to beat faster for a reason she just couldn’t quite work out.

“Uh-huh,” Jimmy nodded like his head was about to fall off. “Clark didn’t seem to like that Jason had taken these pictures and I saw him looking at my camera card, and now it’s gone, but I’d already taken copies. When I found it was missing, I did some other photo checking.”

Up onto the screen popped two pictures, side by side, one was Clark’s staff photo, the other made Lois draw in a rapid breath, because it was a full-face shot of Superman.

“You’re not suggesting?” she could barely word the question it was so preposterous.

Yet, even as denial hit Lois like a wall, Jimmy hit another button and the glasses from the first picture were suddenly duplicated in the second and Lois stopped breathing. How could she have missed it? Looking back at her from both pictures was Clark Kent and a whole mess of complications suddenly tumbled into her life.

“No,” she objected, hating the idea as the unreachable suddenly came within her grasp.

“Are you alright, Honey?” Richard asked immediately, and there was a hand under her elbow.

“Not possible,” Lois shook her head and gasped in a breath and she tried desperately, “We laughed about it.”

She smiled at Richard, but she could feel the stinging of tears in her eyes as all the moments she had caught Clark looking at her strangely came into focus. Memory after memory piled in on her and suddenly a block lifted in her mind and she remembered Niagara and everything that had happened afterwards. The rush of images and emotion hit her like a wall, and she was very glad of the hold on her arm and then around her shoulders that stopped her from collapsing. The café, Clark’s rejection of his powers for her, and the chaos that had followed, and the final kiss in the office that had taken it all away.

“Bastard,” she snarled, “selfish, self-righteous bastard.”

Lois was almost crying, but she didn’t want to cry, not for him, not with so much resentment welling up in her chest at what he had robbed from her. Unsteady, but needing to get away from the image, Lois turned and stepped towards the door. However, there was someone just on his way back in, and when Clark’s gaze zeroed in on her, Lois’ emotions piqued.

“Bastard,” she repeated, finding nothing better to say as she rushed up to her deceiver, “bastard, bastard...”

The insult kept falling from her lips and she thumped her fists against a chest she knew would not suffer from them. Clark’s gaze was open and hurt, but he did not move to stop her. However, when she reached up to snatch at his spectacles, Clark was faster, and a hand caught Lois’ wrist before she could pull away the horrible trick that had been played on her for so many years. Only then did Clark frown, but he did not speak, and she looked right through the thin disguise and for the first time, Lois saw the man beneath the image.

Lois almost couldn’t bear it when Clark actually looked away, glancing around the room, his gaze falling on where she had left Jimmy and Richard: it was just them now, everyone else had gone home. Then it was worse, because that open stare was back on her, and it looked into her soul. There was hurt in that gaze, and a loneliness that made the woman want to curl up and deny it, and most dreadful of all, she saw hope.

Clark let go of Lois’ wrist.

A moment ago she had been so sure she wanted to rip away the sick joke that was mild mannered Clark Kent, but as she was given leave to do as she wished, Lois sank into a quandary. The logical, calculating side of her mind knew there were reasons for this pretence, good ones, and that it could probably be rebuilt, even now, if she denied hard enough, but then there was the part of her that wanted to rip it all down and scream her news to the world. Neither side won outright, but, her hand trembling, Lois slowly closed the gap between her fingers and Clark’s glasses, and, barely breathing, she pulled them off.

Clark stood there, passive, weak like he always was, but it wasn’t really weakness this time, and the strength in his gaze swallowed Lois whole. This couldn’t be, not so close and yet so far. Still, woman looked up into the stare of Superman, and the mess of memories and emotions was too much. Lois heard a sigh before she realised it was her own, and then the world faded. Her last sensation was of two strong arms catching her and then there was nothing.

* * *

The love of his life had remembered: Clark knew that without a doubt, and it sent his soul into a mess of possibilities. He had had no reaction for the vehement horror Lois had displayed to him, and he caught her more as an automatic reaction than anything his brain decided. His thoughts were raging as the protective pretence he wore every day was taken away from him, shocked by how easily it dropped away with those damn spectacles. Clark picked up Lois, for the first time not caring how it looked when he wasn’t in his uniform, and swiftly carried her to a nearby desk. He placed her on the chair and knelt down in front of her, taking a hand and letting concern out weigh anything else as he asked, “Lois?”

“Lois, Honey?” another voice repeated, and Richard was kneeling beside him as well, looking up at the features they both loved.

They had one hand each when the faint began to recede, but Clark watched Lois’ eyelids flicker and he thought there was a reluctance there to open. He understood: he had lived with the memories of how close they had been and they had been very lonely thoughts, one of the reasons it had been easier not to say goodbye when he had left for Krypton. Clark knew why Lois hated him.

“Mommy!” the scream came from across the room, and then Lois opened her eyes with far more purpose.

As Jason came dashing up to them, Clark released the woman’s hand and shifted away to let mother and child be close. He watched as Lois wrapped her arms around her son, who reached back, concerned, but also needy.

“It’s alright, Darling, Mommy’s okay,” Lois told the boy, but there was a tremble in her voice, and, as she kissed Jason’s crown, she looked over his head, right at Clark.

Richard rubbed a hand over Jason’s shoulders as well, but he was an outsider in the emotions, saner, but no less vehement, that passed between Lois and Clark in that moment. Clark had nothing behind which to hide anymore, his glasses were lying discarded on the floor and he found that he could not disguise his feelings as easily without them. Lois’ lips set into a thin grimace and the rage behind the expression was too much for Clark to take.

“I have to go,” he murmured, backing off even further before he stood up and reached for his glasses.

Clark heard Jason gasp as he bent to pick up the fallen disguise, but it was only reluctantly that he turned and looked at the child, the spectacles still held uselessly in his hand. Jason was still standing in his mother’s hold, but he had turned in her arms and was looking him up and down, and then glancing back at his mother.

“They know?” he asked in a hush that sounded almost excited.

Clark nodded. Both Richard and Lois had a stronger reaction, because both asked, “You knew?”

Jason looked at his parents and then guiltily back up at Clark, and that gaze asked for help.

“I think Jason saw past it all a while ago,” Clark drew the attention off his son, not hiding the pride in his voice at the innocent eyes that had been far more perceptive than any adult.

That concept didn’t seem to help Lois’ attitude to him, so Clark turned quickly once his statement had been delivered and headed to his desk to collect his things. As he went past Jimmy’s desk, he placed the media card on the computer keyboard in full view of the young man, who was standing very still with his mouth open.

“Sorry,” Clark apologised for the theft and then he concentrated on retreat.

He pulled on his jacket and slipped his glasses back on his nose and then he headed for the door. However, as he placed his hand on the glass panel, his conscience twinged and he turned to look back at the relatively stunned silence behind him. His thoughts were still all over the place, and he had no more he could think of to say than, “Please don’t tell anyone.”

Lois was not looking at him anymore, she was holding her son very tightly and looking over his head at the floor. Jason was also more intent on comforting his mother than Clark, but Richard and Jimmy, were still staring. Jimmy nodded vigorously; Richard inclined his head, slowly, once. That was enough for Clark, and so he left the young family and Jimmy to themselves.

* * *

Lois hadn’t said much all the way home in the car, nor had she spoken more than a few words at a time while she and Richard had prepared dinner, and she hadn’t eaten anything either. She knew she was worrying Richard and Jason, but as anger had become something much more complicated, she had not been able to communicate that process to either of her loved ones. She was glad, but guilty when a kiss goodnight sufficed with Jason and then Richard went to put him to bed, while Lois sat on the couch and stared at the wall, running the past, that had so recently returned to haunt her, over and over in her mind. 

She had only just managed to accept the fact that Jason had alien genes. It had been easy to deny hazy memories of intimacy with a legend when that legend had been absent, but with that distance ended and the evidence of Jason’s abilities, she had come to terms with the lie she had been telling herself since his birth. Superman had become part of Jason’s life, and re-entered her own, and the world had kept on turning. Yet now, with the haze of forgetfulness ripped away, the world had come to a halt, at least for Lois Lane.

Lois remembered his touch and his love and with those memories, life as she had lived it for over six years did not make sense. The closeness of another being, alien in some ways and so very human in others, made her heart race and her passions respond, despite her fury at Clark that she was struggling to maintain. Yet life had been lived without those memories, and she had a home and family with a man she loved in a different way, but no less truly. Clark was a man, an ordinary man, and he existed in Lois’ life at a whole different level to the unassailable superhero. Temptation had suddenly gained new dimensions.

Lois started when Richard sat down next to her: she hadn’t even heard him come in. She glanced at him, but with the hot thoughts of an old lover in her head, Lois could not look him in the eye for long.

“Talk to me, Honey,” Richard requested, his concern heavy in his voice.

Lois’ eyes were stinging again as her feelings for two men and her ideals clashed. Yet, she couldn’t hold it inside any longer, and Richard had been her confidant in a way that Clark had forfeited when he had taken away her memories, so she confessed, “I loved him and he took that away.”

“Superman?” Richard questioned, slipping a hand into hers protectively.

“No, Clark,” Lois tried not to sound derogatory, but Richard had to understand; Superman would have, had been so much easier to love at a distance.

“You were in love with Clark?” Richard sounded incredulous, but all Lois could do was nod.

“He gave up his powers for me,” Lois confessed, unable to hold back the tears, “but the world needed him to have them back.”

The sob that escaped her mouth said everything she could never tell either man, not without driving them both away. She had never been so grateful for a loving hold as she was for the way her fiancé took her round the shoulders then and pulled her in to his body.

“I would have carried on loving him, worked it out, but he took away my memories,” Lois mourned.

Richard rocked Lois gently, but this was no easy conversation, and he asked, “You don’t love him now?”

She could have lied, but Richard didn’t deserve that.

“I don’t think I ever stopped.”

Richard’s hold shifted a little, but there was no big response, he just carried on rocking the distress out of Lois.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, burying her face into Richard’s shoulder.

“It doesn’t matter,” he soothed, absurdly calm.

Yet, it did matter, and Lois had to meet her own guilt. She sat back and looked her fiancé in the eyes properly.

“I love you,” she spoke slowly and definitely, emphasising every word, Clark be damned for what he’d done.

“I know,” Richard agreed, but Lois could still see hurt in his features as he continued, “That’s why we have to sort this out.”

“Nothing to sort out, Clark burnt his bridges years ago,” Lois decided to use some of the anger that had been protecting her since her memories had returned.

“That’s not true,” her confidant brought the rage to a grinding halt. “You wouldn’t be so upset if it was.”

Faced with such stark honesty, Lois had no arguments or defences, and she just stared into Richard’s strong gaze.

“I love you too, Lois Lane,” Richard told her earnestly, and a hand stroked Lois’ cheek as she wondered how he could possibly say that in the face of her emotional betrayal. “I have loved you since the moment you walked into my life, I want you to really know that before we go on.”

That sounded too much like a goodbye for Lois, and she had to stop this before it went any further; Richard was the man with whom she had made her family and her rage at Clark made the choice between them at that moment an easy one. Yet, as she opened her mouth to object to the nobleness in her fiancé, the brush against her cheek became a light press of fingers on her lips, and Richard shook his head.

“No rushing into things,” he read her well and halted her thoughts again. “I know you want to deny it all, say the past is the past, I can see it in your eyes, but you’ve been wrong before. God, they gave you a Pulitzer for being wrong.”

Richard was smiling at the tease, but his eyes were showing the pain of the moment that Lois was feeling more and more strongly. She didn’t want her family to fall apart. Yet, she could find nothing to say as her quandary deepened.

“Lois, you know how I feel about Jason as well. I was there when he was born, and I will always be his Dad, but I know he’s not mine,” Richard shocked Lois then and she all but stopped breathing. “I’ve always known and I never minded, I wanted to be his Dad anyway. I thought he might have been Clark’s from the way you reacted whenever Jimmy mentioned him. I even wondered if he was Superman’s. Seems I was right on both.”

Richard was smiling again, but it was a shallow expression trying to cover a deep hurt, and Lois wanted to mend that pain. She leant rapidly forward and wrapped Richard in all the love she could and confessed, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t really remember and I wanted him so badly to be yours.”

“So that was part of what Clark made you forget?” Richard didn’t sound like he believed the explanation.

Still, Lois sat back, nodded and clarified, “I had some memories of that time. I remembered being,” she paused, searching for a word she could cope with right then, “intimate,” sounded lousy, but made the point, “with Superman, at least, he wasn’t wearing his glasses, so I assumed it was Superman, not Clark.”

At that thought, Lois’ anger piqued again, and she hissed, “I’m an idiot, why didn’t I ever make the connection?”

Richard did not seem to have an answer for that either, and there was a small frown in the centre of his brow which made Lois calm down again: she had to finish.

“All the things I remembered were mixed up and hazy, and when he just disappeared I was confused and angry. Then I met you and I fell in love and everything happened so fast and I tried to forget about him and get on with my life, and it was all going so well, but then he came back, and then there was Lex Luthor, and I couldn’t ignore it anymore when Jason saved me from Brutus on Lex’s boat by smashing him with the grand piano.”

“So Jason knows?” Richard sounded worried at that.

“No,” she shook her head, and felt more tears beginning to flow down her cheeks. “I don’t think he understood how he did what he did.”

Lois saw relief begin in Richard’s face, but she had more she needed to tell him before that emotion could be true, and so she added, “But Clark does know, I think.”

“You think?” Richard’s eyebrows hit his hairline, and for the first time she could see something other than gracious feeling in his manner.

“I told Superman when he was in a coma,” Lois admitted guiltily, “and he’s been visiting Jason regularly. He hasn’t said anything directly about it, but he knows.”

Richard surprised Lois by looking up to the ceiling and laughing. He was shaking his head when his eyes lowered again and then he told her, “When Clark kept offering to keep an eye on Jason, I thought he was just trying to suck up to you.”

“Clark doesn’t suck up, he’s just a genuinely sweet guy,” Lois defended before she had really caught up with what she was saying, and then, as Richard’s eyes widened at the response, she looked to the floor.

“Don’t tell me that’s what attracted you to him,” Richard dismissed, his tone much less even now, and tinged with jealousy.

“I did fall in love with Clark, not just Superman,” Lois’ stubborn streak got the better of her guilt. “There’s a lot about him that most people don’t see.”

“You mean the muscles and the blue body suit?”

“No,” Lois glared at the false quip with which Richard had tried to cover his discomfort. “I mean his kindness, integrity, strength, and not the Superman kind either.”

“Are you trying to say that you don’t find Superman sexy?” Richard pressed. “Everyone finds him sexy.”

“What, including you?” Lois deliberately tried to put her companion off his flow.

She did indeed manage to stop the probing questions, but the reaction she received was not the bluster and denial she was expecting. Instead, Richard froze with his mouth half open and a shocked, even slightly guilty expression in his eyes.

“Oh My God, you do,” she breathed, her foundations wobbling at that revelation.

Richard looked away this time and he took in a large draw of air before he answered, “It’s the superhero thing.”

Then he laughed. It was a strange break in the tension, but it caught Lois as well, and she found herself smirking at the sideways glance she was given. However, there were much heavier feelings in her heart than whether her fiancé thought Superman was cute, and she straightened after a moment that helped, none the less. Richard saw the reversion, because he too let his smile drop. However, there was a strength in his manner again that Lois needed, and she reached over to him, taking one of his hands in both hers and reaffirmed, “I do love you, Richard, and you are Jason’s father.”

“Then trust me when I say we have to talk to Clark about this,” Richard responded, placing his other palm over the top of Lois’ clasp, and he brooked no refusal as he continued, “and I think we had better invite him to dinner tomorrow.”

Clark Kent in her house was not an idea Lois could stomach then, and the threat he posed to her family came back into sharp focus, but any objection was silenced when Richard leant forward and pressed his lips against her. It wasn’t a heavy kiss, nor a passionate one, but it pushed aside her worries and wrapped Lois in the warmth and companionship that had attracted her to Richard in the first place.

* * *

Staring at his screen was not helping Clark to concentrate on the work he was supposed to have been doing. He’d arrived in work early that morning due to an inability to sleep at all the previous night. He had fought two industrial fires, foiled six robberies and prevented two abductions in ten different countries before midnight, but when distraction hadn’t worked, he had spent the rest of the night flying, which normally helped him sort things out. However, it had not given him any respite from the concerns that were going round and round in his head and Lois’ reaction to her rediscovery was playing over in Clark’s thoughts on auto-repeat.

A polite cough alerted Clark to the rest of the world, and he blinked up at Jimmy, who was looking at least a little more confident than the open-mouthed silence of the evening before.

“Clark,” that was a good start: it was the first time Clark had heard Jimmy use his name without any hiccup of ‘Mr’ in front. “I thought you’d like to know, I deleted all those pictures, put them through the shredder on my privacy suite and everything.”

“Thank you,” Clark replied with an honest smile, but he didn’t have any more conversation for his colleague.

Jimmy looked awkward for a longer moment as Clark blinked at him, but then he seemed to realise the discourse was over, and with a shrug, he nodded to himself more than Clark and announced, “Okay, well, I’ll be at my desk if you need anything, Mr Kent.”

“It’s just Clark,” Clark corrected, and Jimmy smiled and nodded again.

“Whatever you say, Clark,” Jimmy agreed, but with a new emphasis to the name that made Clark cringe and hope it would go away soon.

He watched the photographer walk back to his desk, but when he saw a glance coming his way, he quickly refocused on the computer monitor once more, not wishing for any more interaction with Jimmy than was absolutely necessary.

* * *

It could have been a few minutes or an hour later - Clark was not sure as his attention remained inward – when a second disturbance broke him out of his own thoughts: he heard Lois enter the newsroom. No-one else would have heard her small intake of breath, but Clark heard it and his attention snapped to the source. Lois was stood beside Richard, in fact, very close to Richard, and Clark was instantly worried by the paleness of her features and the dark circles round her eyes: he wasn’t the only one not to have slept.

Lois visibly tensed when her gaze fell on Clark, and he almost looked away, not wishing to cause his loved one any more pain, but he could not bring himself to give up on the connection that was undoubtedly still between them. There was hurt in the woman’s stare, and Clark had to force himself to stay in his seat as his instincts screamed at him to go and try to make things right.

There was nothing Clark could do or say, not in a crowded newsroom, and so he just watched as Lois broke their link, turning to her fiancé, taking his hand in hers and speaking very quietly. Of course, Clark heard, “Now.”

Richard kissed Lois on the cheek and then crossed in front of her and, looking somewhat hostile as he picked up Clark’s attention, began walking over to his desk. Clark stood up to meet him, and he did not have nearly so open an expression as he had had for Jimmy for the man, whom part of him thought of as a rival. 

“Richard,” he began, keeping his voice level and trying not to sound as awkward as he felt.

“Clark,” the manly exchange of names continued as Richard stopped a few feet away.

Clark just waited then, and Richard did not take long to come to the point.

“Clark,” he repeated in a more efficient manner, “we have some things to discuss.”

Clark nodded at the understatement.

“So,” Richard continued, sounding very uncomfortable, “we, that is Lois and I,” was said very firmly, “would like you to come to dinner this evening.”

Clark only just stopped his jaw going slack. Of all the possibilities he had run over in his mind as the fallout from the previous evening’s revelations, he had not even considered dinner as an outside possibility.

“Seven okay?” Richard pushed, sounding defensive when all he was given was silence.

“Y-yes, fine,” Clark agreed, still a little stunned by the ominous invitation.

With that, Richard turned on his heel and headed across to Lois’ desk. Clark’s attention skipped back to Lois, and she had clearly been watching the exchange, but as soon as Clark tried in meet her eye-line, she moved her gaze to her fiancé. Not really understanding all the body language, but knowing he was not wanted in the conversation that began between the couple, Clark turned back to his computer and tried to kick his mind into gear.


	2. An Experiment

Clark took a cab to Lois and Richard’s house, a bottle of wine in his hand and a whole lot of possibilities in his mind. When he reached the front porch, he caught himself adjusting the glasses that were no longer necessary around these people, and so, before ringing the bell, he pulled them off and slipped them into his jacket pocket. Without his normal window glass barriers, or his Superman suit between him and the rest of the world, Clark could not help feeling exposed: right then and there, he was neither the Clark Kent his friends and colleagues knew, nor Superman, he was somewhere in between, and he had only ever shared that feeling with the humans who had become his family.

Yet, his own flesh and blood lived in this house, like him, cared for by humans who could never truly understand the alien in his nature, and it was the thought of Jason that kept Clark on the porch. Also strong in his mind was the thought of Jason’s mother and the need to resolve the tension that had been so palpable in the office that day. He loved Lois, he wanted Lois, but Clark had begun to accept that maybe he could not have her if they were to be able to exist in the same city and raise their unusual child.

His mind on that sadness, Clark forced a smile when the door was opened, and the look of welcome from Richard was just as false. That look was gone when Richard glanced over his shoulder at the cab that was departing.

“I don’t always fly,” Clark tried not to sound like he was apologising.

“No,” Richard agreed, smiling again, but it was an awkward gesture as his eyes also then ran over where the spectacles should have been.

“Here,” Clark decided hovering on the porch was not going to help matters, and so he held out the wine.

“Thanks,” Richard took the wine, turned back the way he had come and invited, “Come in. Lois is just getting Jason ready for bed. They won’t be long, but he insists on saying goodnight to you before he’ll go down.”

Clark’s smile at that piece of news was genuine, but Richard wasn’t looking as he led the way into the living room. Clark straightened as he was given another glance, and Richard waved the wine, saying, “I better put this in the refrigerator. What can I get you?”

“A juice would be great, thanks,” Clark replied, as his host walked into the kitchen.

He turned and looked around the room he had only seen through the walls before. It was modern compared to his mother’s homely farmhouse, and he was feeling very much like the alien interloper, but the place was not unlikeable.

“Here you go,” Richard announced his return by handing over a tall glass of juice.

“Thanks,” Clark had been brought up to be polite. “You have a lovely home.”

The compliment seemed to be the wrong thing to say, because Richard’s eyes flashed and all sense of hostly decorum left with that one look. Clark held the stare that told him he was anything but welcome, not willing to back away from the invitation this man had made, and in another few seconds, the hostility had once again become an awkwardness that at least was honest. Richard put his own glass down on the low coffee table and faced Clark fully.

“Clark, there are some things I want to discuss with you before Lois and Jason get down here,” the man announced, a purpose in his tone that told Clark there was no refusal.

He nodded his consent, and then Richard sighed and disclosed, “I need some air.”

He indicated to the veranda, and, left none the wiser as to what the discussion was going to cover, Clark followed.

* * *

“I want you out of that tub and in your pyjamas in five minutes, Young Man,” Lois wagged her finger at Jason, who had just sunk his wind up boat for the fifth time. Then she winked and added, “And, anyway, Clark’s here.”

The boy’s eyes widened and a grin spread right across his features, which made Lois smile, despite any more adult connotations Clark’s arrival had for her. With much splashing, Jason was out of the bath and into his bathrobe, at which point he went running towards his bedroom.

“Make sure you dry off properly before you put your clothes on,” mother called after her son, but he was a big boy, she knew he could manage on his own.

Lois needed to get her own head together before she ventured downstairs, and so she walked down the corridor that ran the length of the house upstairs and stood by the window at its end: the sight of the water always made her feel calmer. However, the sight that greeted her was not one that made her calmer, quite the opposite in fact. Richard and Clark were stood on the grass beside the dock, facing out to the water, and seeing the reason she had spent the night pacing the house right in front of her caught Lois off guard. She had calmed down enough to at least spend the day in the same room as Clark, but now the prospect of sitting across the dinner table from him made her nervous. However, Lois Lane was not a woman for whom nerves created flight instincts. She always faced her troubles head on and with as much ammunition on her side as she could muster. Good reporter that she was, she sunk into the shadows by the window and listened.

“When I came into her life, Lois was a very angry person and very focused on her work. I didn’t know at the time, but you had just left, both your incarnations, and I am under no illusions that I was a rebound.”

Lois gritted her teeth: maybe it was true that eavesdroppers heard no good. Still, Richard was right, even if it hurt to hear.

“I was the guy from out of town, no links to her past, and I think she at least liked me,” Richard’s tone was even, clinical, at least for those who did not know him well, but he was looking straight up into Clark’s face, and his stare told Lois how difficult he was finding things.

Lois had never admired her fiancé so much as she did then. She had known for many years that he was brave and honest, but the courage he was showing not to her, but to the man that threatened everything they had built up together, had her in awe and she was shown again why she loved him so much.

“I was used to a fast paced life, so I took to her with the speed she wanted, which was whirlwind. Clubs, dancing, flying, and then suddenly, after a couple of weeks, it all stopped.”

Lois held her breath, this time watching the slight frown that touched Clark’s brow. He was listening hard, and it did not seem that he was willing to interrupt what Richard had to say. Lois could have easily put that down to Clark being Clark, self-effacing, deferring to any alpha in the room, but that thin veil was gone now and she could see the strength that had always been there underneath, and seeing it so clearly made her angry. Yet, she stayed quiet in the shadows, not willing to interrupt Richard either.

“Lois was evasive at work and stopped answering my calls at home, but I’d decided by then she was worth working at. I kept calling, kept talking, and then, one day in my office, she broke down and told me she was pregnant,” Richard’s voice hiccupped and he looked away to the bay, so Lois could not see his expression, but she knew the hurt, but also the love that would be there.

The mention of Jason also visibly shook Clark, and Lois had never seen such guilt in him, before that look too was turned to the water and she was left watching fixed shoulders.

“I didn’t ask questions, I just offered to make a family with her. I asked Lois to marry me then and there, and now I know why she’s never set the date.”

Clark was not the only one feeling guilty then. Lois could not help feeling like she had used Richard, and shamefully at that, taking everything he offered, but giving no firm commitment back. Part of her wanted to rush downstairs then and wrap him in her arms and make all the promises from which she had held back, but Clark was still stood there, and she remembered the commitments they had been ready to make to each other as well. Lois bit her lip and chose to endure whatever Richard’s honesty revealed next.

“She loves you,” Clark surprised both Lois and Richard when he spoke simply and openly.

“I know that,” Richard sounded annoyed, and a quick sideways glance at Clark told Lois that he was, but his sound evened out, along with a quick hunch in his shoulders when he went back to explaining with, “I loved her long before she really loved me, but when Jason was born, we were a family. I became Jason’s father.”

The two men looked at each other then, Clark’s gaze conflicted, Richard’s daring him to defy the statement.

“I know you know about Jason,” Richard opened up the field with the admission that almost broke Lois’ heart to see how badly she had used him.

Clark’s expression did not really clear, but he was standing that little bit taller as he met what was almost a challenge from Richard. There was territory being staked here, and Lois was not sure who would be the victor, if indeed that was possible. However, as she continued to watch, Lois was impressed when she saw Clark back down. It was not a surrender, she did not think, but maybe just a release of a little ground, as he relaxed his stance and turned back to the bay.

“I had no idea when I left,” Clark admitted, his voice full of remorse. “When I made Lois forget about us, I thought it would be for the best. It was too dangerous for her to be around me and there were other problems with me being nonhuman, but it was so difficult to be around her afterwards. When I heard about the discovery of Krypton, I had to go.”

“You ran away?” Richard accused.

Clark did not rise to the bait, he continued to look out at the water and replied, “Yes.”

Richard’s jaw was a little slack as he stared at what had to be Clark’s profile to him. However, the line hardened as the advantage was given, and Richard took it.

“What you did to Lois, it may have removed her memories, but it didn’t erase her feelings,” Richard pushed home the stark truth that made Lois’ eyes begin to sting. “You just gave them no basis. It took her a long time to sort all that out, and then you just came flying back into her life.”

Clark said nothing, just took the build of emotions that Lois could see in her loved one.

“And now she remembers, it’s like the past has suddenly caught up with today. She loves us both, Clark, me for the last six years and you from before, but it’s like yesterday for her now. Lois has had no time to heal. She’s trying to deal with it by hating you and clinging to me, but that’s not going to last.”

The tears began to flow down Lois’ cheeks as Richard said to Clark what he had held back the previous evening. It was difficult to hear, but she stayed put, stuck now, needing to hear the rest.

“So what do we do?” Clark asked the question that was in Lois’ heart as well, one to which she desperately wished Richard would have an answer.

The two men were looking at each other again now, almost fully facing each other, and despite Clark’s extra height, it was Richard who was dominating the moment.

Richard took a deep breath, and he did not look happy as he began, “There is only one thing we can do; don’t ask Lois to choose.”

“What, draw lots and the loser walks away?” Clark’s voice raised a little for the first time, and Lois could see some fight in him.

However, Richard shook his head.

“You’ll never be out of her life, not as Superman,” Lois’ heart entered her throat as the noble side of her fiancé scared her again, “and I have no wish to leave this city, or my family either. No, we have to share.”

Lois’ heart skipped a beat and an exclamation, thankfully, stuck in her throat as she barely believed what she was hearing. Clark did the objecting for her as he retorted, “Lois will never go for that.”

“I’m not talking about I get her during the week and you get her at weekends,” Richard held both listeners’ attentions as his tone came out in purposeful vehemence. “Lois would still try and tear herself in two. No, if we share Lois, we’re going to have to learn to share each other as well.”

Lois all but stopped breathing when she heard that and her brain instantly denied that such a suggestion had come out of her straight-laced fiancé’s mouth. Clark was clearly taken aback as well, his features aghast.

“Don’t look at me like that, Kent, most of this is your fault,” Richard sounded defensive and uncomfortable, but very determined. “We can’t undo what you did, and I don’t see any other way for us to all get what we need.”

“You mean a trio rather than a couple?” Clark’s voice was very uneven, and he still sounded like Lois felt, that he hadn’t really heard what he had heard.

Still, he wasn’t running away, and Lois surprised herself when, after the initial shock, the thought settled some of the hurt that had been generating her nerves. She watched as Richard nodded stiffly.

“Have you spoken to Lois about this?” Clark asked slowly, and Lois knew she was going to be disappointed if his you-can’t-be-serious tone led to refusal.

“Good god, no,” Richard shook his head vigorously, “I want to get this sorted with you first. There’s no point in hurting Lois anymore if we can’t agree.”

“Agree on what, White?” Clark was being hostile, but Lois wasn’t very surprised, he was a traditional country boy, and this unconventional suggestion had shocked even her metropolitan upbringing.

“To pull this off, we have to at least be comfortable with each other,” Richard continued, sounding far from at ease with the idea. “Lois doesn’t know this, but before I settled down with her, I’d been around, seen lots of different lifestyles.”

Lois’ mouth fell open and her heart was beating nine to the dozen as Richard gained a whole new dimension with the suppositions her analytical mind swiftly made about what he wasn’t saying. Clark was much more direct, “You mean you’ve slept with guys.”

“And you clearly haven’t,” Richard snarked back, but then he visibly caught himself and pressed, “Look, Clark, I know this probably sounds extreme, but we both know Lois.”

Silence: Clark’s mouth had gone from open to a thin line and he was staring very hard at Richard, who was staring right on back. Lois held her breath, not sure what she wanted to happen next. What did happen shocked her more because she couldn’t take her eyes off it than the act itself: slowly, Richard reached up to Clark’s face and was not resisted when he turned Clark’s head a little and brought him down to Richard’s height.

Clark’s hands remained by his sides, passive, and he did not lean any further forward than Richard urged, but neither did he pull away. Lois forced herself to breathe as her chest grew tight, but she was holding it again when Richard closed the gap between himself and Clark and pressed his lips against his companion’s. It was hardly a passionate moment, but Lois’ hope rested behind it as she continued to watch.

For a second she was watching two very uncomfortable men, trying a kiss that looked like it was going to fail. However, Richard maintained the lock, and Clark’s eyes closed. The country boy frowned, but haltingly, his hands then began to move, and he took hold of Richard’s upper arms. At that, the stance shifted, becoming more natural as both men moved closer into the embrace, and Lois’ centre pulsed as the grips they had on each other loosened while the kiss grey heavier. She was breathing now, quickly and in disbelief, but it was an incredibly erotic feeling as she became an unwitting voyeur.

Richard dropped his palms to Clark’s shoulders, and Clark’s hands ran down around his partner’s body. Lois didn’t know if anyone was home in the two bodies on the water front, as she failed to recognise either of her lovers. The press of lips opened, and she knew both men were good with their mouths, so Lois’ erotic memories were doing overtime as she saw them taste each other. Just like her pulse, things below sped up really quickly, taking the two men and their watcher along for the ride, and Lois was left in no doubt that her men could be much more than comfortable with each other.

Both her lovers could be incredibly sensual when they let go of the hectic, stiff world in which they lived their lives, and Lois witnessed that world going away for those heady moments in the sunset. They had tried this intimacy for her, but what she was seeing told Lois that maybe the chemistry was three way. She found herself smiling through the hot disbelief that turned her on more than she would have ever cared to admit, and she would have been happy for the kiss to have gone on all night.

However, Clark had other ideas. One moment, his hands were clutching Richard’s buns so tightly he must have left marks, and the next, he pulled rapidly away from the embrace, breathing hard, and not through exertion. Richard was gasping and shaking, Lois judged from the way he was holding himself, and he stared at Clark, shock all over his face.

“Well,” Clark seemed more together, if no less shocked than Richard, “I think we’re compatible.”

The two men continued to stare at each other, and Lois would have done the same, but at that moment, there was the patter of bare feet behind her, and she turned in time to stop Jason from looking out of the window.

“You’re ready, Honey,” she announced, swiftly wiping away the remnants of her tears and then scooping up her son and heading back the way they had come. “Great, now lets go and say goodnight to Clark.”

* * *

Clark was staring so intently at him, that Richard was finding it hard to put two thoughts together. When he had formulated his plan, he had had no idea he would get such a rise, literally, out of Clark, and his own response had shaken him as well. Compatible: that was an understatement, and he was taking a while to come down from the loss of control he had experienced. Clark was flushed and gasping just like him, and the bulge in his companion’s pants was not something Richard could miss.

“You don’t give off any weird pheromones, do you?” Richard checked, looking for a reason for the flip out.

Clark grinned at that, straightening his stance and shaking his head.

“Not that I know of,” he answered, his strong blue gaze finally dropping away, which gave Richard more of a chance to get his thoughts into order.

“So, you think you can work with me on this?” the host chose to be practical: Lois would be down soon.

Clark didn’t look directly at him again, his gaze was sideways and accompanied by a raise of eyebrow. Yet, Richard needed to know, so he caught the part of a stare he was given and maintained the question. The nod he received in return was quick and not altogether confident, but then Richard was rather glad of that; he didn’t think he could have handled the type of presence Superman commanded right then.

“What do we do next?” Clark asked, his tone more even than it had been for a while, and he was clearly bringing himself and his reactions under control.

“We have dinner, talk things through, take things slowly. If we dump this on Lois too quickly she’ll probably throw us both out, and I don’t want to be sleeping in the plane again,” Richard went rapidly on with his plan, a little too rapidly when he saw Clark’s lip curl at his admission and he realised he’d said too much.

“Again?” Kent could be too damn alert sometimes.

“None of your business,” Richard retorted, but not too sharply, and Kent’s smile just grew.

“Dinner,” Clark agreed.

With that, Richard decided enough was enough, and led the way back into the house.


	3. No More Pretending

“Clark!” a very excited young voice drew Clark out of his own thoughts shortly after he had followed Richard back into the living room.

He turned in time to catch the small body hurtling towards him, and, for the first time, allowed himself to follow through with the movement that lifted Jason up onto his hip, which seemed to be where the boy wanted to be. Clark made a quick check of Lois: her features were unreadable, and he did not look Richard’s way.

“Hi, Jason,” he greeted the big grin he was being given.

“No glasses,” the child pointed out and his mood was almost jubilant.

“No need,” Clark replied, and then did look up at Lois and Richard, who had moved to each other’s sides.

“How long have you known about Clark, Honey?” Lois clearly decided it was the right time to ask such questions, and she walked forward, offering out her arms to her son.

Clark did not deny the possessive look in Lois’ eyes, he knew he was walking on egg shells with her, and so he let Jason be taken away from him. The boy, thankfully, did not notice the tension between his parents as he shifted easily into Lois’ hold and disclosed openly, “Ages, but it didn’t seem important till yesterday.”

Lois’ eyes were round when she took in that bit of youthful wisdom and Clark had to admit that he was impressed by the matter of factness of Jason’s childhood innocence, and part of him wished the adult attitude could be as simple.

“Why didn’t you tell Mommy and Daddy?” Richard looked very protective as he moved in close to his fiancée, and brushed Jason’s fringe out of his eyes.

Jason shrugged and made Clark wonder just how many other innocents he had known in his lifetime had made the connection and just never said anything.

“Did I do something bad?” Jason showed he’d picked up on the hostility Richard was trying not to show.

Richard quickly took Jason from Lois then, seating him firmly on his hip, and, with a glance at Clark, responded emphatically, “No, Daddy was just curious, that’s all.”

Clark watched guardian and child interact with a mild green streak running through his heart. Richard’s proposal gave him hope for the future he had once rejected with Lois, but Jason was still an unknown quantity: would he ever be able to tell Jason he was his father while the boy was awake? It was not a question for that moment, however, and Clark gave Jason a winning smile when he was stared at with concern leftover from the child’s last question.

“Alright, Monster,” Lois decided, “now you’ve said hello to Clark, time for bed.”

“Can’t I stay a bit longer,” Jason whined immediately, but his plea was rejected by a light kiss on the boy’s forehead and a pat on Richard’s shoulder.

“No, Young Man, bed time,” Lois countered firmly. “Now, say goodnight to Clark, and then Daddy will take you to bed.”

“Goodnight, Clark,” Jason pouted as he did as he was told.

“Goodnight, Jason.”

“Night, Honey,” Lois kissed her son again.

“Night, Mom,” the boy slid his arms around his mother’s neck and hugged. 

Clark’s eyes followed the domestic scene and his thoughts went to Martha and Jonathan. He had always known they were not his birth parents and it had never mattered to him, but then his natural parents were long dead. Jason had a father in Richard, and despite his want to be a known quantity in his son’s life, Clark could see the bonds of the young family in front of him, and he did not want to break them. That idea left him feeling a little lost as he kept his attention on Richard and his excited, but sleepy charge.

Jason’s head was already resting on Richard’s shoulder as the man carried him out of the room, and the wave he sent Clark was dozy. Clark smiled after him and waved back. However, as Richard and Jason disappeared out of the room, Clark was left with no other option than to turn his attention to Lois. The look he was being given then was not friendly. However, Lois’ eyes did at least show more coherence than they had the previous day, and she did not move from where she was stood on the other side of the fireplace.

Clark had played over and over again what he would say, but it all seemed false, or inadequate when he was faced, once again, with the confusion and pain he had caused when trying to do what he thought best. The only thing that sounded at all genuine was two simple words, “I’m sorry.”

“What did you think making me forget would achieve?” Lois asked, her voice wavering, and she folded her arms across her chest.

“It wasn’t safe,” Clark replied.

However, Lois was clearly ready for any argument he had, because, before Clark could go on, she had taken a step towards him and accused, “Don’t you think that was my decision?”

Clark decided that talking about the past was not going to help, so he just looked into the hot glare that went right into his soul. That acceptance of Lois’ anger did more than any set of words, and Clark was surprised when his companion blinked, and some of the hostility was gone. He took a chance then, and, with a sigh, admitted, “I can only say I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

Lois was not going to be mollified that easily, but the bristles were lowering moment by moment.

“I was so scared when I found out I was pregnant,” Lois surprised Clark again when she made her own angry confession. “I needed you and you’d left the planet.”

“You think I’d have left if I’d known?” Clark’s own emotions piqued at that clash of circumstance.

Lois didn’t reply, which hurt more than Clark cared to admit. Yet he wasn’t about to back down from the disquiet in Lois’ face.

“Credit me with some decency, Lois,” he tried not to snap, but with his whole life turning upside down in front of him, Clark was having difficulty remaining calm. “I did what I thought was best, and then I had to live with you not remembering us. I meant what I said when I told you I had to go to Krypton, to find out, but it wouldn’t have mattered as much if there had been something keeping me here.”

Lois’ eyes flashed and Clark could see a fight in the near future as her defences came out, so, he quickly closed the gap between them and place a finger on her lips. The woman froze at the gesture, and Clark quickly cajoled, “Some of this is my fault, but the rest is circumstance. We have to sort it out, not argue about the past. Let me try to make things right between us, Lois, please.”

Clark dropped his hand back to his side and looked down upon a less sure gaze. This close, Clark could feel the attraction from which they had walked away that night on the roof of The Planet, like it was electricity in the air. Lois’ breath slipped over her lips in a shallow draw that said she was forgetting about the world outside the moment they were sharing, and Clark knew he could have forgotten as well. Yet, he had already messed up so much, and Clark remembered Richard’s intention to move slowly, and so, before he could do anything to upset the status quo he had agreed with his host a few moments ago, Clark stepped sideways out of Lois’ proximity and picked up the drink he had left on the coffee table.

Taking a gulp of liquid, Clark then turned back at Lois; a look of disappointment was hiding behind something else in her expression, and that would have made Clark smile with no little relief had he not put the glass to his lips a second time to cover it.

“I have to check the food,” Lois was flustered, and quickly headed over to the kitchen.

* * *

The whole trying to run away from Clark thing might have worked better if Clark hadn’t followed Lois to the kitchen. She’d tried not to look his way, but still she caught the guilty, but hurt expression on his face. She didn’t want to know that Clark was upset by this whole mess, she wanted to be angry, after all, it was all his fault, wasn’t it? Lois’ conviction about Clark’s guilt had cracked since her rage the previous day, mainly due to her eavesdropping, and the gaps in her armour left her feeling vulnerable.

“Do you need another juice,” she asked, heading to the oven at the same time and trying to distract herself with the mundane.

“I’m fine, thanks,” Clark returned, holding up a nearly full glass and not being very helpful with the distraction, well, not in an innocent direction anyway.

“I decided to cook, a rare event,” she tried again with a bright smile, glancing over her shoulder at her guest, and then, hastily opening the oven and reaching inside.

“Lois!” Clark yelled sharply.

The woman barely had a chance to react to the warning call before there was a body beside her. Lois was still reaching for the casserole dish in the oven, and as one arm came around her shoulders, pulling her back, Clark took rapid hold of the pot and lifted it away from her fingers. It was only as one index finger brushed stinging, hot ceramic and the pain lanced up her arm that Lois realised she had been about to pick up a super heated pot with her bare hands. Clark did have hold of the oven-baked dish with his bare hand, and Lois just stared at the strong grip that did not even flinch at what would have taken the skin off her hands.

The evidence in front of her was almost too much for Lois. She had made the connection, she had been shown the alien behind the man, but actually seeing Clark do the things only Superman had done rammed the idea home in a way that made her tremble. Clark turned them both around to the counter and placed the dish on the surface next to where he had left his glass.

Lois was still watching Clark’s hand for any sign of damage as he left the dish to itself and reached for her.

“Lois, are you alright?” Superman asked, but he was wearing Clark’s clothes when she slowly tracked her eyes from where his hand rested on her arm and then up his chest to his face.

It made such sense when Lois looked up into the face she had loved despite his absence, and her memories told her that this was Clark, a man who was within her reach, but the part of her that was content with Richard wanted to believe the fraud that had been perpetrated on her for so long.

“It’s not fair,” she finally admitted the root of her anger to the man who had been her journalistic and personal partner. “I had you, and then I lost you, and now I have Richard and Jason, and I don’t want to lose or hurt them, but I still feel so much.”

Lois backed out of the gentle hold that was on her torso and put the counter between herself and Clark. After witnessing the embrace on the waterfront, what she really wanted to do was rip Clark’s clothes off and reaffirm their relationship, but she wrapped her arms around herself instead.

“Lois, I’ve been talking to Richard,” Clark surprised Lois as her insider information suggested he was about to confess what she already knew. 

However, Lois was disappointed when he did not reveal what would have given her the freedom to do what she wanted, which certainly was not to throw her men out of the house. Instead, Clark continued, “We want to work this out as much as you do, so let’s try dinner and see where we get to.”

Lois nodded and then her mind wanted to move onto something else, so she looked back at the casserole dish.

“This isn’t going to be ready for another half hour,” she confessed, and laughed at the mess she was in.

Clark’s smile was gentle, unimposing, and he made no judgement on what she thought had been a pathetic show of nerves, and merely offered, “Shall I put it back.”

Lois nodded again and this time managed to smile at her guest in much more than politeness: patience was going to have to be her ally.

* * *

When Richard left Jason slipping into sleep and walked into the living room, he found Clark and Lois sat one each end of the sofa. Lois had kicked her shoes under the coffee table and had her legs curled under her, and Clark had spread out his long limbs. The pair were talking animatedly, and in a much easier manner than Richard had expected. The conversation stopped when he entered, but only because both people turned their attentions to him. Lois smiled and held out her hand to him; Richard walked up to her immediately and, despite his proposal to Clark, was glad when his fiancée clasped his fingers and leant up against his leg.

“Clark and I were just catching up properly,” Lois told him, and he was glad not to hear any waver in her voice.

“Oh yes?” he prompted the conversation to continue.

“I was running out of excuses for not bringing in my world trip photos,” Clark took up the offer with a smirk that took Richard by surprise, because the Clark, to whom he had become accustomed in the newsroom, had rarely broken more than the ghost of a smile.

Richard grinned back, finding he was glad that the atmosphere had cleared. He reached over and picked up the glass he had abandoned to take Jason to bed and agreed, “I was wondering when we’d see those.”

“Space is very boring,” Clark replied, and he was halfway through a shrug when a frown danced across his features and away again.

Clark finished the shrug, and Richard wasn’t sure he had even known the frown had been there, but then Clark wasn’t the one watching his guest closely. Since his libido had stood up and taken notice of Clark, Richard was finding him quite a presence in the room, and he knew he was paying a little too much attention. Yet he was disinclined to refuse any instinct which went towards his goals, so he just smiled when Clark looked up at him, also a ghost of earlier in his eyes.

“Is the monster asleep?” Lois distracted Richard from what could have been an embarrassingly long stare.

“Well, he was in bed and his eyes were closed,” Richard shrugged with an easy smile, “but excitement may get the better of how tired he actually is.”

“If I hear anything, I’ll let you know,” Clark caught Richard unawares, and it took him a couple of moments to catch up with what was being insinuated.

“Th-thanks,” he recovered quickly.

If Clark noticed the pause, then he did not let on, instead he just nodded and then his face became serious as he began again with one word, “Jason.”

Lois’ hand tightened around Richard’s fingers and her face was conflicted when he glanced at her, but she did not say anything in return. For the first time where his son was concerned, Richard felt like an outsider, as the two birth parents looked at each other. He kept silent, not trusting his tone if he spoke. Clark glanced up at him then, and Richard could not tell what was in the stare. However, then the look moved back to Lois, and Richard knew things would never be the same again.

Clark pressed on, sounding absurdly matter of fact, “I think we need to discuss his development. When Martha and Jonathan found me, I was already able to lift a car. Other abilities developed as I grew and experimented. I know I was human when he was conceived, but has Jason shown any signs of unusual strength or heightened senses?”

Lois’ hold on Richard’s hand became vice-like.

“Only once,” the woman answered, her tone so mixed that Richard did not know if she was proud or scared of the admission. “When we were on Luthor’s boat, Brutus was going to hurt me, and Jason pushed a grand piano at him and smashed him against the wall.”

Clark’s eyes widened a little at that snippet.

“But he didn’t seem to know he’d done anything special,” Lois stammered quickly.

Richard was in no doubt of Lois’ message: her son did not know and she did not want him to know. From the way his jaw set, it was obvious that Clark had received the message as well. Still, there was only a momentary pause and then Clark took a deep breath, continuing with some determination, “I was lucky, I had a whole farm to use as my testing ground when I was growing up, but it was still frightening sometimes. I didn’t know my limits, so I just had to keep pushing and find out.

Since Jason is at least half human, we don’t know what traits he’s going to display, but since he has already shown some signs of developing my abilities we need to keep an eye on him. If he continues to develop, I would like to guide him through it.”

Letting a relative stranger near his child, even Jason’s natural father, was not a concept Richard could accept outright, and neither, it seemed, could Lois, because she countered, “Not yet, please.”

Clark didn’t look happy about that plea, but he did not look surprised. His lips pursed, he nodded silently. The pause threatened to become a full silence, as Clark appeared to have run out of enthusiasm at the indirect putdown. Richard didn’t want the evening ending before it had begun, so he decided to build a bridge with an observation he had been mulling over all day.

“Jason’s allergies seem to be clearing up gradually, ever since the Luthor incident actually,” he offered haltingly.

After the reluctance from Lois, Clark did not seem to know what to do with the peace offering, and he just looked conflicted: maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to continue talking about Jason. However, after having caused the momentary impasse, it was Lois who barrelled through it, and what she said sent a shot of alarm through Richard.

“I saw you outside,” she announced, her sound small, but explosive.

Clark sat up rapidly as well, shock and worry all over his face. Yet Lois was full of more surprises then, because Richard found himself dragged from their end of the sofa to the other and pulled up close behind his fiancée as she planted herself in Clark’s lap. She let go of his hand by placing it firmly on her shoulder and then Lois inspired a whole set of conflicting desire and hostility from Richard as she took hold of Clark in much the same way as he had done, but more aggressively dragged their guest into a kiss.

* * *

Patience gone, Lois pressed her lips hard against Clark’s, her whole being behind the move that had been born out of seeing the effort in both of her men. She needed Richard’s touch there close to her, but it was Clark’s barriers she wanted to break down. He had pushed her away once, and he was not going to do it again. Orderly, polite conversation was not going to solve their problems, and she wanted an admission of his love from Clark. The woman half sighed, half groaned when she was given it in short measure: Clark was much swifter to respond to her embrace than he had Richard’s, and his arms wound round her, engulfing her in his hold and his lips parted on her demand.

This was the man she remembered, and it was glorious to have him back. Lois lost herself in that all-encompassing embrace, tasting, touching, smelling her lover, refamiliarising herself with his body and his power. She had initiated the touch, but when Clark gently shifted her, taking a little control, she gave him leave. His hands ran over her back, stroking through the light dress she had chosen for the dinner, and then they took her waist. Lois was a surprised when he gripped her carefully and stood up effortlessly, but she went with the move, wrapping herself around his neck to remain close.

Lois was so deep into the embrace with Clark that she did not realise what he was doing until he bent his tall frame enough to place her on the ground and then reached out to the body that she had almost forgotten was behind her. Richard may have been momentarily absent from her thoughts, but as soon as he stepped up close behind her, Lois’ senses expanded to encompass him as naturally as if he had always been part of the embrace and she had never felt so much desire at once. Clark was exotic, effortless power in human form, drawing her into a heady world where everything left her control; Richard was earth, grounding Lois in a passion that came right from her centre. Pressed between both her men, she laughed at how simple the solution to everything had actually been.

Clark broke the kiss he was sharing with Lois, shifting his attentions to her neck, and so Lois leant back into Richard’s hot body, stretching and rubbing against him. Her fiancé’s palms ran down over her hips and then round over her stomach and then anywhere they wanted to go, touching her with expert knowledge of what she liked. When he pushed against her abdomen, bringing her tight against his body, Lois was left in no doubt that it had not taken long for Richard to become aroused.

Lois’ centre pulsed at the prospect of one of her men, and she wanted the other as well, so she reached possessively out to Clark’s groin and stroked what she found there. Clark let out a gasp into her shoulder, pausing what he was doing as she clearly took him by surprise, and his tremble ran right through her and into Richard. Clark was hard, and, enjoying the way the three of them had shared his initial reaction, Lois slid her palm swiftly round his body and, gripping buttock, pulled him up against where Richard’s hand was still flat against her abdomen. Clark flexed his hips spontaneously and the response from Richard made Lois’ heart beat faster: he murmured into her ear - a wanton sound that ran another tremble through her body - and mirrored Clark’s flex.

To say she was wet would have been an understatement, and Lois could smell sex on all three of them as passion overtook everything else. Two pairs of hands ran all over her body and Lois surrendered to them, moving against the touches and just letting herself react. The freedom after the nightmare of the last twenty four hours drew her out of any inhibitions that may have once existed in her morals, and Lois let both her men know she wanted them.

For a while, they were three people enjoying one embrace, but Lois discovered that things could go up yet another level when her partners chose to work together. Clark kissed Lois again, running his teeth over her lips and dancing his tongue against hers, and she revelled in the taste of him. She could have spent forever in that moment, but in a heartbeat, Clark broke the touch, his light fingers running over her jaw line and holding her back from following his withdrawal. She looked up at the soft gaze enrapt by hers, showing her hunger to him, and he smiled, but then even his look was gone as his brilliant blue eyes stared over her head at Richard.

There was something in that gaze Lois didn’t understand, something that was more Clark than Superman, and she only understood it when Richard’s touch replaced Clark’s on her chin and she realised the spark had been a sexual deference. Lois drew in a hasty breath as that fired impulses she had never known she had, and she went with the gentle lead which tipped her head back enough for her to kiss Richard; all the while, Clark was watching.

Once the new press of lips had begun, Lois felt Clark move. The parting of their bodies made her object, but Richard had most of her attention and her small protest died in her throat when he took the rest of her focus as he cupped her breast in the hand that was not against her face and squeezed just enough. As Richard had done, Clark dropped out of Lois’ senses and then slipped easily back in when his palms ran up over the outside of her legs and under her skirt.

Lois’s knees nearly gave out with the light stroking, and she had to break the kiss with Richard in order to gasp her surprise. Her fiancé steadied Lois, and she followed his attention down her body to where Clark was now kneeling in front of them. Clark looked back up at them both, his stare intense with desire, and he continued to run his palms up Lois’ thighs, gathering the cloth of her dress as he went.

Breath tight in her chest, Lois took the support from Richard, who shifted their weight and held her against his body with biceps under her arms. Her pleasure centres ran riot when Clark’s stroking reached her hips and Richard took the folds of cloth from his fingers, lifting them further up her torso out of the way. The feeling of being on display did nothing to diminish Lois’ fire, and she approved of the moment when Clark’s eyes dropped to her abdomen with a breathy whimper.

Clark’s fingertips played over the top of her panties, what she could see of his stare hot and focused. Lois drew in a ragged breath as her lover’s eyes closed and he leant towards her. A kiss, lips damp and warm, pressed on her stomach and felt to Lois somehow reverent; she knew she was adored. Lois had never needed Richard so much as when Clark tipped his head to the side and flicked his tongue into her navel: it was only Richard’s hold that kept her upright, and Lois dropped her head back against his chest. Richard kissed her temple, and his arms closed round her torso, tangling in the loose dress fabric, but he did no more.

Lois thought she swore when Clark ran his tongue along the line of her panties, but her other senses were fading out as touch dominated her mind and so she didn’t really hear herself. She trembled and shifted against Richard as anticipation took her to arousal faster than Clark and she whimpered again when her lover’s touch slid under the lacy edge of her underwear. It was her turn to flex her hips, and another kiss on her bellybutton met Lois halfway, pressing her back against the bulge in Richard’s pants: this time Lois growled her lust.

Her panties were pulled down with a sloth that had Lois biting her lip. Her clit was throbbing with pleasure and her nipples were hard nubs, rubbing against her dress, by the time Clark had revealed everything he wanted. Lois wanted him to touch her then, but Clark was revealing that he was a master of tease, because he persisted in removing her underwear, albeit somewhat faster than the initial shift of lycra had been. As soon as the panties were at her ankles, Lois stepped out of one leg and kicked them off her other ankle. Then she planted her feet a little further apart than was natural and flexed her abdomen towards Clark, very deliberately this time.

Lois bared her teeth and flashed her eyes at him when Clark looked up at her once more. The heat in his gaze told her she would not have to wait much longer, and then, gasping in breath and realising she was perspiring with the tension in her body, Lois put her head back onto Richard’s chest and tipped her face up to him. She was given a kiss as Clark’s lips pressed at the top of the hair on her genitals and she groaned into her fiancé’s mouth.

Clark’s hands stroked round from her hips to down between her legs and then Lois’ anticipation was met. He moved her apart with a knowledge of woman, and warm, damp muscle brushed against her clit. Lois bit her lip hard in order not to scream as that one touch sent her over the edge that had been building since watching the kiss on the waterfront.


	4. Establishing Dynamics

When Lois came back to herself, she was still, more or less, standing and she was once again pressed between her two lovers. When she glanced up at him, Clark was looking over her head, and he was smiling at Richard in a very satisfied way. Turning a little, Lois caught sight of a similar stare from her fiancé, but her movement broke the moment and then she felt both attentions on her. Lois couldn’t help herself, as she thought about the rampant libido that had got her into this position, she felt her cheeks grow hot, even if her body was telling her she was ready for more. Still, she smiled up at her men.

“The annex,” Richard brought a little common sense into the moment as he explained, “It isn’t attached to the rest of the house except for a corridor, so we won’t wake up Jason.”

What Richard didn’t say is that it was also the place the couple had always gone if they wanted a little nookie without the chance of an unexpected disturbance. Lois was more than happy with the suggestion, and she stepped out of the closeness in the direction of privacy. Yet, she did not want to let go completely, so she grabbed one hand of each lover and carried on her way.

It wasn’t until they reached their destination and Lois let go that she realised she had had hold of Clark’s right hand in her right, which meant he had been forced to walk crab like into the annex, but he didn’t seem to mind, especially not when she turned, took hold of her dress and pulled it off. Both men, in fact, were all eyes and enjoying the display she was making of herself, Lois stepped back towards the large guest bed, sat down and then began to slide up onto the mattress. She propped herself up on her elbows and her movements left her legs slightly splayed, but as both Clark and Richard took a step towards the bed, Lois tutted and shook her head.

The disappointment was palpable, but Lois crossed her ankles coyly and decided, “Take each other’s clothes off first.”

Clark and Richard looked at each other then, and Lois could not help a smile as the newness of that idea showed in their faces and reminded her of the intense experiment she had already witnessed. She was confident there would be no refusal, she could see the spark between her two lovers and she was rather attracted to the way Clark was blushing.

“Share,” Lois prompted and showed off her smile when Richard, at least, glanced her way once more.

Clark had handled her disrobing excellently, but he seemed unsure how to proceed when Richard turned properly to him. However, Richard took the lead, stepping up to Clark and Lois witnessed a rerun of the embrace from the waterfront. Her body pulsed again, and Lois uncrossed her legs as she watched discomfort morph much more willingly into the heat of libido this time. Clark did not break away then, in fact, he steadied himself by pushing closer into Richard’s torso.

Lois could have watched the touching all night, her already heated centre throbbing in time with each move, and she only remembered her instructions when Richard reached between himself and Clark and began to unbutton Clark’s slacks. Only then did Clark also obey Lois’ wishes, and there was the sound of ripping cotton as he just pushed Richard’s shirt off his shoulders. The men broke apart at that, and Clark looked abashed as Richard’s shirt fell open where the buttons has been and then dropped off his torso.

“Sorry,” Clark offered, looking awkward with his flies undone and his shirt halfway out of his own pants.

Richard just smiled and returned, “Try not to do that with the pants.”

That was an invitation if ever there was one, and Clark’s regret turned into something much hotter. Richard held his hands out away from his body and Clark stepped back up to him, taking hold of his belt. Lois just about remembered to breathe as the two men held each other’s gazes and Clark began to unfasten the rest of Richard’s clothing. Richard stepped out of the trousers and shoes when the cloth pooled at his feet, leaving him in his boxers and socks, and Clark paused then, looking down at the obvious bulge in Richard’s underwear.

Richard didn’t say anything when an unsure gaze looked into his, but Lois knew authority when she saw it: Clark had never been an alpha male, but to see Superman overtaken by his alter ego made her want to touch herself. Self-consciousness held Lois back for only a second, and then as Richard’s unspoken lead was taken by Clark, she slipped her hand down to the dampness between her legs.

Clark dropped to his knees once more, but this time, he reached for Richard’s foot covering, first one, then the other, as the dominant man stood tall. Then his stare came back to Richard’s only remaining clothing and Clark took in a deep breath. Lois stroked her clit as Clark remained on his knees, reached across and took hold of Richard’s boxers. The soft jersey slid over Richard’s erection and he murmured as Clark freed him. The country boy’s face was a picture of wide-eyed self-disbelief stirred up with lust as he revealed another man’s arousal and could not take his eyes off it: Lois bit her lip for the umpteenth time.

Slowly, Clark stood up, his gaze moving with equal sloth up Richard’s torso from groin, tracking over the fine-lined muscle of Richard’s chest and finally up to the cock-sure stare that was being directed at him. Clark was flushed still, but not from embarrassment any longer, and slowly, he reached for his own clothing. Although Lois had asked her men to undress each other, this felt right, so she remained silent.

The nerdish tie which had gone halfway round his neck during their embrace went first, pulled off with one hand, and then the shirt went straight over Clark’s head. His trousers were next, sliding off his hips easily, and his shoes went with them. Yet, Clark was not left standing in his underwear, what he had revealed was Superman. Richard’s jaw was slack and Lois was staring too as it was rammed home exactly who was standing at the end of her bed. However, Clark paused only a moment, glancing at Richard and then Lois, and then back at Richard, before he reached up to the open collar of the uniform and pulled downwards.

Lois had never considered how the costume was fitted, but she watched, all eyes, as it stretched easily over Clark’s impressive torso, sliding down his body and gathering at his waist. Richard surprised both Lois and Clark when he then stepped back into the moment and, pushing aside Clark’s own grasp on the red and blue material, took hold and began to push the second skin away to reveal the first.

Clark tipped his head back and closed his eyes, his mouth open and his chest rising and falling rapidly as Richard revealed that there was nothing underneath the suit. Human controlled alien as he directed Clark to step out of the uniform and finally, Lois was faced with both her men, naked, side by side and then moving towards her.

* * *

Lois sat up and met her lovers as they climbed onto the bed, one each side of her. Her own fingers at her clit were replaced by Clark’s and she would have flopped back down onto the bed, a few brain cells popping with the unexpected touch, but Richard caught her, this time kneeling behind. Whether consciously or unconsciously, her men were working together again, and Lois moved any way Richard wanted her to as Clark distracted any higher brain function she had left. She was on her knees as well before she really knew what was happening, and only then because Richard’s hand slid between her legs from behind as well and she reared up between her plunderers.

The woman whined and pressed down against the two touches as fingers tested her readiness. She was more than ready, and a growl told them so. Lois tensed for a moment as the strokes simultaneously became much more intimate, but the shock of penetration lasted only a second and then she panted her delight as slowly, she was opened. She leant on Richard for support and stared right into Clark’s hypnotic blue eyes as their erotic probing rubbed against each other and her.

Splaying her legs further, Lois wanted more very quickly and she broke away from Richard, leaning forward and using Clark as a prop and making it very clear what she wanted. It was more difficult to ignore it when Richard dropped away from the foreplay this time, despite the fact that when Richard removed his finger, Clark immediately maintained the width of touch with two of his own. 

Lois shivered and hung on to Clark as her body pulsed and anticipation told her what Richard was doing. They kept supplies in the bedside cupboard, and in the corner of her senses that still knew the world existed, Lois heard that cupboard being opened. Shortly, she heard the rip of a condom packet and Clark’s gaze had flicked over her shoulder to where Richard was kneeling. Lois watched the slight wideness of her country boy’s eyes, as turned on by the incredulity she saw there as she was by his well-aimed touch. A couple of deeper probes made her rear again, and then Richard moved back up behind her, taking hold of her hips as she relaxed away from Clark’s ministrations.

Clark kissed her then, and it was like a goodbye that Lois didn’t want as he slowly withdrew his fingers. She held on to the ‘no’ that was in her mind, quashing it as silly, but she still pressed down on his fingers as they remained stroking around her pussy. She was not left feeling lonely for long. Clark slid his touch back to her clit and then she felt Richard’s cock. Bigger than fingers, hot and hard, Lois discovered that wanting and getting were two different things, and she buried her face in Clark’s shoulder as she was spread much more soundly by her fiancé.

Richard pushed into her slow and deep, just the way Lois liked it, and she groaned her pleasure. Clark continued his stroking and when Richard began a firm rhythm, Lois left the real world behind. Being touched inside and out and already highly aroused, it did not take long for Lois to reach orgasm. This time, it came from deep inside, sending spasms of desire out through her body, and she could do nothing but rely on her lovers to stop her from falling. She could feel them both close by, pressed against her and in her, absorbing her pleasure and she held nothing back.

* * *

Kneeling up, still seated on Richard’s unspent dick, Lois opened her eyes to look into Clark’s hungry gaze. There were alpha instincts in that look, but they were held in check and Clark’s eyes again went to Richard for direction. Whatever passed, leave had to have been given, because when that look came back, the alpha was more in control. Clark took hold of Lois’ waist, and she whimpered, as gently he lifted her up and off of Richard.

Her muscles were like water after the orgasmic high, and Lois was glad when she was guided down onto the bed and her partner lay down beside her, propping himself up on one elbow in order to lean over her. She stroked his chest, scratching her nails over his pecs and making him murmur, and then she was pushed into the mattress by another kiss. A kiss had taken away her memories, but this time, it intensified them, and Lois’ head span with her own unsated desires. Lois had to break the kiss to gasp in air, and Clark shifted down her body, flicking his tongue over her quickly rising and falling chest.

Lois had remembered the sensuality of Clark’s mouth very well, and as he put it to work once more, Lois could do no more than lie under his attentions and let him know how well he was doing through her reactions. She shifted at each touch of lip, tooth or tongue, maddened and treated by them in equal measure, and she moved to accommodate her lover when he knelt between her legs and began work on her proud breasts. His hard cock brushed her body as he danced his kisses all over her torso, and Lois wanted him inside her.

However, Richard had other ideas, and he broke into the closed world between the two lovers with, “Clark, kneel up for me.”

The order was given in no more than a whisper, but the authority in him was unmistakable. Clark’s profile was annoyed as he looked over his shoulder at the interruption, but Lois watched the taut muscles in his neck and shoulders soften and his expression became unreadable when he moved silently to obey. Lois’ emotions shifted again and a knot formed in her stomach as she watched Richard move up behind Clark. The sensation was not altogether unpleasant and it made her heart skip beats, but it was eye-opening for her to realise that she was enjoying seeing a much clearer dominance in Richard than he had displayed before.

Clark’s cock twitched as Richard ran palms over his firm shoulders, leaving a fine sheen of oil behind them and then kissed his neck. His blue eyes flickered closed and he tipped his head back, giving access to Richard’s sinful mouth and Richard took it and more besides. The hands that had first touched shoulder ran down Clark’s back and then round over his six-pack and Clark’s starts and murmurs told Lois how new this kind of touch was to him. Gradually, he relaxed against Richard’s slicked ministrations, clearly enjoying them, if somewhat nervously.

Lois knew her fiancé’s touch well, and she watched every stroke as he played Clark like a finely tuned piano. There was a slight hiccup in the smooth flow of desire when Richard rubbed down over Clark’s pelvic bone and onto his thighs, but it was more a start of arousal than concern if the way Clark’s dick responded was anything to go by.

“Wider,” Richard commanded without need for dictate, and he was pushing at Clark’s inner thighs.

Lois accommodated the move by lifting up her legs and bringing them to rest, slightly bent, on Clark’s knees, and then she was given a show that made every pleasure centre in her body sit up and take notice. Richard ran one hand up Clark’s right inner thigh and his fingers closed round Clark’s balls. Clark gasped and tensed, throwing his head back further, and his hands tightened into fists. His breath became a sigh when Richard’s second hand took hold of his cock. Clark’s legs splayed even wider as he revealed he liked the results of the access he was giving.

Richard stroked and played for a while, drawing helpless pleasure from Clark, but this was only part of the game, and Lois had seen what Clark had not: when Richard had moved in on him, he had dropped the body oil and a condom beside him on the bed. One hand still fisting Clark’s dick, Richard then reached for the condom, already unwrapped, and brought it round in front where, if he had been looking, Clark would have seen it. Yet, Clark’s eyes were closed, and so he only knew about the protection when Richard placed it over the head of his dick. Already highly sensitised, Clark thrust against the latex, and Richard very efficiently rolled it down over the action. Clark was left gasping and slightly disoriented by the unexpected move and he was held by Richard’s hand round the base of his penis.

“You want Lois,” Richard told Clark what they all three knew, even as he held him possessively.

“Yes,” Clark provided the capitulation that Richard wanted and hit all Lois’ buttons.

She could have easily sat up then and joined Richard in his education of Clark, but Lois lay still, aware that this was something between her two lovers. Richard had led in this all the way, but Richard was cementing the dynamic at a much deeper level than he had so far. It wasn’t Lois’ higher brain that knew what was happening, it was her sexual instinct: Superman had powers no human could expect and that would always be an imbalance in their relationship, and it had to be this way if that vulnerability he could so easily inspire in anyone was not to destroy what they all wanted. Lois met gazes with her human lover for the briefest of moments, but it was long enough for them both to know they understood each other. 

“How much do you want Lois?” Richard asked with Lois’ leave and growing excitement.

Clark looked down at the way he was being possessively held and then up at Lois. She smiled at him, showing him how aroused she was by the way things had to be, and there was no decision to be made. Clark turned slightly for a moment, and brushed his hand affectionately over Richard’s hip, and then he knelt forward, placing his hands either side of Lois’ torso. His lips were parted slightly and breath whispered in and out over his lips as he held himself poised over Lois. She reached up to the slight trepidation in his face, stroking his cheek and she did not need to see what Richard was doing, because the consternated little frown that appeared on his brow followed swiftly by disbelief told Lois that the lube was in use.

Pain was a sensation like every other, but as far as Lois had been aware, Superman did not feel pain, well, not unless kryptonite was involved. However, she was almost certain the shock and open-mouthed expression that fixed her to the mattress held at least some hurt accompanied by a large dose of pleasure. Clark dropped his head then, his hair brushing her breasts as he panted and shivered; Lois could see Richard over her distracted lover’s shoulder, fixated on the arse he was preparing.

Lois could only guess at what this experience was like, but the sex on the air was making her body sing its tune, and her arousal increased with every hint of it she was given. She was as eager for the breach as Clark was when he threw his head up, arched his back and let out the most sensual moan Lois thought she had ever heard. Richard was not silent either, and the woman found herself jealous of her two men. Possessively, Lois reached up to the partner within reach and ran her nails up his chest; it wasn’t lack of strength that almost made Clark’s arms give out then.

Words fell out of Clark’s mouth as Richard began to move, but Lois could not understand them, and she wasn’t sure he was even aware he was speaking. His eyes rolled back in his head, and any concern, that had been at the back of Lois’ mind, about this choice shrivelled up and disappeared. Her centre was throbbing hotly, and Lois didn’t think she could watch much longer without really interfering. However, Richard’s plans seemed to match her own, because he spoke again, his voice tight with desire.

“Now, Clark.”

There was no need to clarify the leave that was being given, because both of Richard’s lovers knew exactly what he was saying: they could all have what they wanted. Lois shifted quickly, wanting Clark as much as he wanted her, and she lifted her legs up around his body. Once she was exposed to him, Clark pushed forward, Richard moving with him. Lois arched into the penetration, exclaiming her satisfaction, and her thoughts danced off into erotic miasma.

Now the partners were not three individuals in one embrace, they moved as one, aware of the rhythms of each other’s bodies and with only one aim: mutual pleasure. There was no time for gentle, and Lois rose to claim each thrust that brought her closer to climax. However, it wasn’t until she heard Richard make a sound she recognised as the ascent to his orgasm that the erotic connection sent Lois tumbling over her own edge for the third time. She clenched her thighs against Clark’s hips and he stilled as Lois claimed him deep inside her and the wall of ecstasy hit her.

* * *

Three orgasms meant that Lois dropped out of her third into a boneless pile, falling away from Clark and Richard. Clark was still vocalising, lost somewhere near his prostate and Richard continued to thrust through climax. Lois closed her eyes and listened, the sounds keeping her in the heady sexual world for a little longer, but as Richard’s gasps told her he was spent and Clark’s strange words spiralled down to nothing, the high began to slip away.

Her men moved, and Lois opened her eyes as Clark collapsed onto his back on the bed, a dazed look of wonder on his face. He seemed content, blinking slowly and clearly not coming down as quickly as she was, but there was something of which Lois was very sure: both humans had reached orgasm, but their alien hadn’t and that wasn’t right. It appeared that Richard was of the same mind, because, although he was still breathing hard from his own climax, he shifted over to Clark at the same time as Lois sat up.

Clark did not resist when Richard pushed his legs apart, kneeling between them, and his only reaction was an over-sensitised moan when Lois reached to slide the condom off his straining erection. He was still not back on earth as far as Lois could tell, and she grinned at Richard as she took pleasure in Clark’s reaction to the experience: maybe this could work. Richard’s return gaze was far less playful, although no less lustful, and he had the lube in his hands. Quickly, he slicked his fingers and Lois watched intently as this time she got to see the stroke down to Clark’s entrance.

Now Clark reacted: as Richard pushed two digits inside him, Clark reared off the bed and his eyes rolled back into his head once more. The sight of her first lover – alien, exotic, super human – at the mercy of her second lover – warm, familiar, human - made Lois want to reach out and touch. They were beyond delicate, and so she took hold of Clark’s cock and fisted him firmly. Clark writhed under their control, all theirs, and Lois wanted a share in the glorious moans that were coming out of his mouth. Richard stroked their supplicant in her place as she reached for the bottle of lube, and quickly she returned, her fingers slick.

Lois’ heart entered her throat then as she stepped into new territory. Cosmo talked about this kind of thing, but like most things in that magazine, it wasn’t something Lois had ever tried. Yet, Richard was beside her, and his stare said he knew what she wanted to do and gave her plenty of encouragement, as slowly she followed the line of his arm, and slid her hand over the back of his. Richard withdrew his fingers, which dragged out a low whine of loss from Clark, and neither lover wanted to leave him begging, so, as one, they pressed back against the tight muscle of his anus.

Clark was slick from Richard’s attentions, and Lois gasped at the sensation of him arching onto her finger. The muscle spasms as he was breached were something she had never felt before and they reinforced her knowledge of Clark’s helplessness. Lois was no dominatrix, but it was a hell of a feeling to have so much control and she liked it. Yet this was not all about her, she had been given her pleasure, and now it was time to return the favour. She was well aware that it was not going to take much more to bring Clark off, and so she chose to be direct: this she had done before and, confidently, Lois took of the head of Clark’s penis into her mouth.

Moving her finger in time with Richard’s, Lois sank into the pleasure that was sending Clark into ecstasy, and she showed him she could use her mouth too. Clark came, shooting his load with a yell of something not human, and Lois claimed her prize.

* * *

Clark lay on his side and kissed Lois’ shoulder; he knew the gesture was somewhat possessive, but he wasn’t afraid of such a statement anymore, and he glanced up at where Richard was lying in a mirrored position to his on the other side of their love. Lois murmured her pleasure, her eyes closed and content in the gentle petting that had replaced their increasingly intense love making, and blindly, she ran her hand over Clark’s hip: he wasn’t the only one being possessive. Lois’ hands were exploring both her lovers’ bodies, however, and Clark watched avidly as her nails scratched white marks over Richard’s thigh.

Richard smiled back at Clark from where he was also enjoying the view and the strange, but erotic feeling that made Clark’s stomach do flip flops was back as he met authority in his lover’s gaze. Richard could not command him through any physical or mental superiority, but something had slipped into place for Clark that evening that made everything alright, and part of it was the lead Richard had taken in their sexual adventures. Clark loved Lois, but he was also finding that he wanted Richard as well and the new dynamics they had discovered in the bedroom gave him hope that his feelings for the attractive man would develop beyond the lust that had drawn him into bed.

The slow down had allowed the real world to creep back into Clark’s psyche and the point at which they had abandoned the conversation in the living room came to mind. Lying on a bed, naked with two lovers and aroused enough to reinitiate hardcore may not have been the best time for everyone to return to the mundane complications of everyday living, but it made sense to Clark, and he was not afraid of the answer as he asked, “So where do we go from here?”

Richard’s eyes widened at the change of tack, and Lois swiftly propped herself up on one arm and showed her shock at being knocked out of her reverie. Clark just watched as Richard shifted closer up behind Lois and draped an arm over her waist, reminding Clark that he was invading a long-standing relationship. Yet that relationship was lying in bed with him, so Clark persisted in his question; he had let himself go, shifted his self image to get this far, and he needed to know what that meant for the future.

Lois leant back into Richard and glanced up at him in an unspoken conference, and her face showed that she was asking the same question. This whole evening seemed to have been Richard’s idea, and so Clark solidly met his male companion’s gaze and waited.

“Are you still staying at the ‘Y’?” Richard sounded like this was not an unexpected enquiry.

Clark nodded: he had not had the time, nor the will to look for an apartment since he had been back in Metropolis.

“Then I suggest you move in here to the annex.”

Lois’ jaw went slack at that proposal and Clark’s heart leapt into his mouth, but then he saw a curl appear at the side of her mouth, and she brushed her hand tenderly over Richard’s hold on her. Richard looked down on his fiancée and his gaze was unsure and showed some of the hurt that had gone away when he had taken sexual charge of them all. Clark appreciated the amount of ground that was being given, and it kept him silent as the couple exchanged unspoken communication.

From the look of gratitude on her face, Clark knew Lois recognised the cost of the proposal to Richard. She pushed herself up and laid a delicate, almost chaste, but heartfelt kiss on his lips and pulled his arm closer round her body.

“I love you,” she whispered sincerely, holding close to Richard, and the man’s arm flexed, taking her even closer to his body.

Clark watched the moment from the outside, but he did not feel like an outsider anymore. He was an alien, he could never be human again, but these two people had taken him into their lives more completely than he could have hoped. There were parts of the relationship between Richard and Lois that he could not touch, just as there were things that he shared with Lois that Richard could not own, and Clark guessed there were going to be moments that he would have with Richard that Lois would not be able to understand; that was the way it was going to be. Yet he had been invited into a bed and now into a home, and the future was looking much brighter than it had since he had crashed back to Earth.

“Thank you,” Clark told the couple with open gratitude.

“Best solution all round,” Richard returned, concern still in his tone, but now it had a lot fewer sharp edges as he continued, “We can work everything else out slowly as we go along.”

The rashness of the evening struck Clark then, and he could not help a snort of laughter and a shake of the head as he understated, “This is a little more than the talk over dinner I was expecting.”

His laughter died in Clark’s throat quickly, however, and he gazed at his two lovers, letting his passions for them begin to take over again. He leant in, and it was Lois whom he was intending on kissing, but Clark’s hand ran up over her hip and over Richard’s body as well. However, his lips never touched Lois’, because suddenly she screeched, “Dinner! My casserole!”

Both Clark and Richard were knocked off balance as the woman scrabbled out from between them. They shared a look of amused disbelief at the sudden change in priorities and then both turned their attentions to where Lois had picked up her dress and was trying hastily to sort out which end was which.

“Lois,” Clark began, sitting up.

“Honey,” Richard joined in, beginning to make his way to the end of the bed.

“What?” Lois demanded testily, still turning fabric in her hands as she looked over her shoulder at her men.

Clark shifted his position to kneel beside where Richard had settled on the edge of the mattress, and faced with the distracted look they were being sent, very deliberately leant against his companion: the dress fumbling slowed, and Lois turned back fully to regard the pair. Richard also rested some of his weight against Clark’s torso, and Clark drew in an appreciative breath as fingers ran over his curled leg and came to play on his inner thigh.

“Let it burn,” Richard spoke his and Clark’s opinion very clearly.

Lois looked from Richard to Clark and back again, the consternation on her brow flickering quickly to sexual interest. Clark spread his legs wider and Richard took the invitation, beginning to play with his balls. His cock throbbed and he groaned: Lois dropped her dress. Confident the bait was going to be taken, Clark let his pleasure centres take over again, closing his eyes and tipping his head back, and he sank into the sensation of being fondled. 

When female hands pushed on his shoulders and urged him backwards, Clark went, uncurling and hitting the mattress with a wanton smile plastered all over his face. Being stroked by one lover and pounced on by the other, Clark decided that if this was sharing, then he could live with it.


End file.
